There seems to be a fundamental difference of opinion between the British and their continental neighbours about how to deal with foreign- language films; we prefer subtitling, whereas they prefer dubbing. Americans, however, seem equally allergic to both dubbed dialogue and subtitles, so have come up with a third way of dealing with movies made in some incomprehensible foreign lingo; they simply remake them as American movies.
"My Father the Hero" is an example of this process, one which seemed much in vogue during the nineties. It is a remake of a French film called "Mon Pere ce Heros" and, like that film, stars Gerard Depardieu as the heroic father of the title. (There is, of course, a slight difference in meaning between the French title and the English one; perhaps the translator skipped class on the day his French teacher was explaining the uses of the demonstrative adjective).
The film is centred upon teenager Nicole, the daughter of a French father and American mother. Her parents are divorced and since their divorce Nicole, who lives with her mother in New York, has had little contact with her father, Andre, who has returned to France. She cannot speak French and even dislikes her French-sounding Christian name, preferring to be known by the more American "Nicky". And then one day Andre turns up, offering to take her on holiday to the Bahamas. While there, Nicky meets and falls for a handsome seventeen-year-old boy named Ben and (for reasons best known to herself) decides that the best way to impress him is to tell him a series of lies:-
Lie 1. That she is eighteen years old. (No Nicky, you're fourteen and don't look any older, so even if Ben does go for older women he's not going to swallow that one).
Lie 2. That she already has a boyfriend. (Look Nicky, that's what you tell a boy when you're hoping to put him off. Not when you're trying to encourage him).
Lie 3. That her boyfriend is an older man who is not only extremely jealous but also has a prison record. (And if that doesn't frighten Ben into running a mile, I don't know what will).
Lie 4. That her father is a convicted armed robber, that her mother is a prostitute and that she herself is a recovering drug addict. (Ooh, Nicky, aren't you just making yourself sound like love's young dream?)
To round off this catalogue of mendacity, Nicky tells Ben that Andre is actually her lover. (Weird, or what?) This untruth quickly finds its way around the resort where they are staying, so that before long all the holidaymakers are convinced that Andre is involved in a sexual relationship with an under-age girl whom he is passing off as his daughter, although none of them actually take the seemingly obvious step of reporting him to the police. About the only person unaware of what is going on is Andre himself, who cannot understand why his fellow-guests shun him after he treats them to a rendition of "Thank Heaven for Little Girls" at a talent contest. Eventually, Nicky decides that she has no option but to let Andre in on the secret, and he decides that he will have to play along with her lies in order not to spoil her chances with Ben. (Seriously weird, or what?)
It is many years since I saw "Mon Pere ce Heros", so I will not attempt a direct comparison, but I must say that I loathed "My Father the Hero". One problem was with the character of Nicky, whom the scriptwriter obviously saw as a teenage romantic comedy heroine but who comes across as a particularly obnoxious little brat, even leaving aside the fact that she tells lies about her blameless father which in the real world (as opposed to the fantasy world in which the film is obviously set) could have resulted in his being sent to jail. She is the sort of girl who thinks that she can get away with being as sullen, bad-tempered, rude and ungrateful as she likes; both her parents feel the lash of her tongue. I felt sorry for Ben, and kept hoping that he would have the good sense to ditch Nicky and find a nicer girl closer to his own age.
Katherine Heigl has since gone on to become a well-known Hollywood name, but I must say she did not show a lot of promise in her teenage years. Three years after this film she went on to make the even more dreadful "Prince Valiant". Someone must have thought that it would be a good idea to get Depardieu to reprise his role from "Mon Pere ce Heros", but that somebody had obviously forgotten that Depardieu, a fine- sometimes electrifying- actor in his native tongue, cannot act for toffee in English, a language he does not speak with any fluency. Here (as in some of his other English-language movies) he falls back on a sort of "amiable slob" persona, which makes it difficult to imagine that Andre would ever be taken seriously when, as part of his attempts to assist Nicky's romance, he tries to invent all sorts of stories about his life as an international adventurer.
My main problem with the film, however, is that its central premise is just screwed-up. A teenage girl who could behave in the way Nicky behaves in this film, regardless of what the film-makers might have you believe, would not be a loveably kooky romantic comedy heroine. She would probably be a delinquent in need of treatment for some serious mental health issues. This must be one of the weirdest comedies of the last few decades. And I don't mean that in a good way. 3/10
"My Father the Hero" is an example of this process, one which seemed much in vogue during the nineties. It is a remake of a French film called "Mon Pere ce Heros" and, like that film, stars Gerard Depardieu as the heroic father of the title. (There is, of course, a slight difference in meaning between the French title and the English one; perhaps the translator skipped class on the day his French teacher was explaining the uses of the demonstrative adjective).
The film is centred upon teenager Nicole, the daughter of a French father and American mother. Her parents are divorced and since their divorce Nicole, who lives with her mother in New York, has had little contact with her father, Andre, who has returned to France. She cannot speak French and even dislikes her French-sounding Christian name, preferring to be known by the more American "Nicky". And then one day Andre turns up, offering to take her on holiday to the Bahamas. While there, Nicky meets and falls for a handsome seventeen-year-old boy named Ben and (for reasons best known to herself) decides that the best way to impress him is to tell him a series of lies:-
Lie 1. That she is eighteen years old. (No Nicky, you're fourteen and don't look any older, so even if Ben does go for older women he's not going to swallow that one).
Lie 2. That she already has a boyfriend. (Look Nicky, that's what you tell a boy when you're hoping to put him off. Not when you're trying to encourage him).
Lie 3. That her boyfriend is an older man who is not only extremely jealous but also has a prison record. (And if that doesn't frighten Ben into running a mile, I don't know what will).
Lie 4. That her father is a convicted armed robber, that her mother is a prostitute and that she herself is a recovering drug addict. (Ooh, Nicky, aren't you just making yourself sound like love's young dream?)
To round off this catalogue of mendacity, Nicky tells Ben that Andre is actually her lover. (Weird, or what?) This untruth quickly finds its way around the resort where they are staying, so that before long all the holidaymakers are convinced that Andre is involved in a sexual relationship with an under-age girl whom he is passing off as his daughter, although none of them actually take the seemingly obvious step of reporting him to the police. About the only person unaware of what is going on is Andre himself, who cannot understand why his fellow-guests shun him after he treats them to a rendition of "Thank Heaven for Little Girls" at a talent contest. Eventually, Nicky decides that she has no option but to let Andre in on the secret, and he decides that he will have to play along with her lies in order not to spoil her chances with Ben. (Seriously weird, or what?)
It is many years since I saw "Mon Pere ce Heros", so I will not attempt a direct comparison, but I must say that I loathed "My Father the Hero". One problem was with the character of Nicky, whom the scriptwriter obviously saw as a teenage romantic comedy heroine but who comes across as a particularly obnoxious little brat, even leaving aside the fact that she tells lies about her blameless father which in the real world (as opposed to the fantasy world in which the film is obviously set) could have resulted in his being sent to jail. She is the sort of girl who thinks that she can get away with being as sullen, bad-tempered, rude and ungrateful as she likes; both her parents feel the lash of her tongue. I felt sorry for Ben, and kept hoping that he would have the good sense to ditch Nicky and find a nicer girl closer to his own age.
Katherine Heigl has since gone on to become a well-known Hollywood name, but I must say she did not show a lot of promise in her teenage years. Three years after this film she went on to make the even more dreadful "Prince Valiant". Someone must have thought that it would be a good idea to get Depardieu to reprise his role from "Mon Pere ce Heros", but that somebody had obviously forgotten that Depardieu, a fine- sometimes electrifying- actor in his native tongue, cannot act for toffee in English, a language he does not speak with any fluency. Here (as in some of his other English-language movies) he falls back on a sort of "amiable slob" persona, which makes it difficult to imagine that Andre would ever be taken seriously when, as part of his attempts to assist Nicky's romance, he tries to invent all sorts of stories about his life as an international adventurer.
My main problem with the film, however, is that its central premise is just screwed-up. A teenage girl who could behave in the way Nicky behaves in this film, regardless of what the film-makers might have you believe, would not be a loveably kooky romantic comedy heroine. She would probably be a delinquent in need of treatment for some serious mental health issues. This must be one of the weirdest comedies of the last few decades. And I don't mean that in a good way. 3/10